Congratulations! You made it! You survived and excelled in your student teaching. You are now a science teacher! If you would, take a few minutes to share your wisdom about how to negotiate this difficult year with the students who are following in your footsteps by answering the following questions.
a. What are some things students can do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
The 2 main things that I would inform them, is:
1. Really work on their lesson plans and how to use time within a class period. At first it was difficult for me to plan the 77 minute block schedule because I was used to 40-50 minute periods. I would sometime end much earlier than expected, so I would say to always OVER prepare and have more material than you think you could cover. This way, if things move along quite fast, you aren't left with nothing to do for the rest of the day, which helps out classroom management as well. If they are busy, there is less chance of them to act up.
2. Another thing I would advise is to really work on classroom managemnet strategies. It is one thing to learn about them, then a complete other thing to implement it!
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
I would say to prepare your unit plan thoughtfully and carefully! It is a great time saver when you are actually teaching, and an oppurtunity to prepare a great unit that you could get feedback on as well before you teach.
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have done a better job during student teaching if I had ...."
Really worked on classroom managent skills more. You could be very skilled in your content area, but can't get that across to the students if you can't control them!
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?
I would say to make sure not to be their friend. It is so easy to get caught up in the whole concept of having your students like you, but this could lead to poor classroom management and the students feeling like they can get away with things they normally wouldn't. You could always start strict then loosen up, but it is much much much more difficult to start nice and easy going then try to get stricter. Often, they don't take you being strict seriously after being easy going for so long!
a. What are some things students can do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
The 2 main things that I would inform them, is:
1. Really work on their lesson plans and how to use time within a class period. At first it was difficult for me to plan the 77 minute block schedule because I was used to 40-50 minute periods. I would sometime end much earlier than expected, so I would say to always OVER prepare and have more material than you think you could cover. This way, if things move along quite fast, you aren't left with nothing to do for the rest of the day, which helps out classroom management as well. If they are busy, there is less chance of them to act up.
2. Another thing I would advise is to really work on classroom managemnet strategies. It is one thing to learn about them, then a complete other thing to implement it!
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
I would say to prepare your unit plan thoughtfully and carefully! It is a great time saver when you are actually teaching, and an oppurtunity to prepare a great unit that you could get feedback on as well before you teach.
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have done a better job during student teaching if I had ...."
Really worked on classroom managent skills more. You could be very skilled in your content area, but can't get that across to the students if you can't control them!
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?
I would say to make sure not to be their friend. It is so easy to get caught up in the whole concept of having your students like you, but this could lead to poor classroom management and the students feeling like they can get away with things they normally wouldn't. You could always start strict then loosen up, but it is much much much more difficult to start nice and easy going then try to get stricter. Often, they don't take you being strict seriously after being easy going for so long!